Honourable Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Information and Communication, has urged consumers to report shopkeepers and retailers who are deliberately hiking food prices in the market.
His call comes amid continuous rise in food prices despite Trade Ministry’s warning business community against price hike.
“Yes, it is quite unfortunate because enforcing some of these things can be very difficult. You are dealing with retail sectors where you have shopkeepers spread across the four corners in the country,” he said.
“That’s why I said that it will be good if the buyers also can chip in here and help with information. If a shopkeeper or retailer is hiking price unnecessarily, I think it’s important to bring it to the attention of the relevant authorities,” he added.
According to him, “the government is committed about the price hike in the country,” adding most of it actually has to do with external factors.
“But that’s notwithstanding, the government, two weeks ago, the Ministry of Trade and Finance had a meeting with importers and the GRA to look at specific concerns of consumers. This was especially within the retail sector whereby people will buy things at the market within a specific time in the morning for example and when you return back in the afternoon is increased without any justification,” he said.
He continued, “so, government has setup kind of like a committee to monitor this thing and we also look forward to the form strong collaboration of both the buyers and the retail sector to ensure at least we bring some form of sanity in the market.”